You are currently:

Community rules

We rely on all members to help keep these discussion forums a safe place for people to share and view information.

To do this, we request that all members comply with the following rules when contributing to the discussion forums:

Keep it friendly. Welcome new members, share your tips or show them how to use the website. If you are a new member, make sure to introduce yourself – our community is waiting for you.

Be courteous and respectful. Appreciate that others may have an opinion different from yours.

Stay on topic. When creating a new discussion thread, give a clear topic title and put your post in the appropriate category. When contributing to an existing discussion, try to stay 'on topic'. If something new comes up within a topic that you would like to discuss, start a new thread.

Keep it safe. Remember that the forums are public places. Don't post personal information that you would not be comfortable sharing with a stranger. We recommend you use only your first name or a pseudonym in your username and that you don't post any information that may identify you or anyone else, such as your address, email address or phone number.

Report abuse. A strong online community is self-governing. If you see abuse, report it to us using the ‘report post’ button on the forums.

We maintain the right to remove posts

We need to make sure that material posted in the discussion forums is not potentially harmful. For this reason, we may edit or choose not to publish any post, avatar or display name that:

contains disrespectful or derogatory remarks about any other member

contains advice or content that we believe is damaging, unhelpful or distressing to others

includes personal information such as full names, phone numbers, locations, postal or email addresses; or encourages the sharing of such details

puts overt pressure on other members to respond

makes attempt to facilitate personal offline contact with other members

describes or encourages violence or other activity which could endanger the safety or wellbeing of others

contains references to suicide, self-harm or sexual abuse

is a copy of another post or contains the same, or similar, message posted multiple times elsewhere

contains references to edits or moderation

is more than 2,500 characters in length or submitted in multiple parts to avoid the character limit

is made from duplicate accounts.

Moderation

A team of moderators have been entrusted with the ability to intervene when these Community Rules have been breached. However, due to the dynamic nature and the sheer volume of posts, we can't immediately read everything written – therefore much of the responsibility for maintaining our friendly environment lies with you.

If any material you post raises concerns about your safety or the safety of others, we may try to contact you to make sure that you or others are safe.

We may also need to pass your contact details on to authorities who can help protect your safety or the safety of others (for example, to the police or a mental health crisis service).

Should you wish to query a moderation decision, please get in touch with us privately via email and we will respond on the next business day.

You will be advised by email if we are unable to publish your post, or if a post has to be edited or removed from the forums because it breaches our community rules.

We take our duty of care in providing a safe environment for all forum members seriously, and this includes recognising when a member may benefit from participating in our forums and when it may be more appropriate to seek support offline.

We reserve the right to permanently deactivate the accounts of users who breach our community rules.

International users

As beyondblue is primarily funded by Australian Governments (both National and State/Territory) and members of the Australian public, we need to ensure that our service is accessible and available primarily within Australia.

We encourage users outside of Australia to access services in the country where they are, or to utilise international services, of which there are a number that can be found via Google.

Accounts that have been created using a false postcode and later found to be breaching this rule will be deactivated.

Ending your time with us

You may request at any time that your membership be cancelled from the Website.

By doing so, you understand and agree that we may retain your personal information for up to six months from the date of your request and that all activity associated with your account that was generated prior to the date of your cancellation request will remain permanently on the Website (for example, your posts in the interactive components will not be deleted).